Students for Quality Education

Students for Quality Education (SQE) was formed in 2007-2008 by students in the California State University (CSU) system to build the student movement for educational rights in public higher education. We were assisted in our efforts by the California Faculty Association.

Our movement for educational justice in the CSU is not new. Students in the 1960s fought to open up the University for working families and immigrant students. They demanded high quality and relevant education, and badly needed student services such as the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP). From this movement the CSU grew to become the People’s University, open to all who met the basic requirements for entrance.

Students for Quality Education
(SQE) chapters throughout the state will be holding actions
April 15-19 to bolster awareness of their “No Harm, Disarm”
campaign and in recognition of the two-year anniversary of a
Humboldt State student’s murder near campus.

April 15 marks the two-year anniversary of the murder of CSU
student David Josiah Lawson.

In recognition of his legacy, and as part of SQE’s “No Harm,
Disarm!” campaign, the following SQE chapter throughout the state
will be organizing a week of action on their respective campuses
the week of April 15-19.

CSU Northridge president Dianne Harrison told students she will
talk with police about making campuses sanctuary spaces for
undocumented immigrants after she heard an impassioned speech by
CSUN student Eduardo Estrada at the CSU Trustees meeting May 25.

Students throughout the CSU system are planning a day of action
on May 2nd to “Reclaim the CSU,” with actions at Chico State, San
Francisco State, CSU Stanislaus, Cal Poly SLO, CSULA, and Fresno
State.

They are speaking out as part of a growing student movement in
the U.S. These events will oppose the annual tuition increases
recently proposed in the CSU Board of Trustees’ “Sustainability
Report,” and advocate for a return to the CA Master Plan and its
promise of tuition-free higher education for all.

A “sustainability” plan focused on increasing reliance on private
funding and tuition hikes drew fire from faculty and students
when it was presented to the CSU Trustees’ during Tuesday’s
meeting in Long Beach.

SQE has been busy this fall. From fighting the increased student
costs and privatization proposed in the CSU’s draft
“sustainability report” to marching alongside their professors to
demand a fair wage increase for faculty, students across the
state have made their voices heard.

Larica Jacko is a junior in the creative writing program at San
Francisco State University. Her passions include social justice,
poetry, art, and fashion. After graduating from SFSU, Larica
plans on earning her MBA and beautician’s license so that she can
open her own business.

Her poem “Word in the Town”, addresses issues within the
California State University system.

The debate over student “success fees” and other the
campus-specific fees tacked on top of CSU students’ system-wide
tuition—came to the CSU Trustees at their November meeting while
students protested outside.

Here is excerpt of testimony presented by one of the students
who addressed the meeting.

My name is Cheyenne Aldridge and I am a
fifth-year student at Sonoma State. I rely primarily on financial
aid (scholarship, grants, loans) and work two jobs to help
sustain my off-campus bills.

Nearly 7,000 Sacramento State students voted down a $438 annual
campus-based fee hike last week by 79.6 percent.

The fee increase was floated to build a 5,000-seat arena on
campus. The action adds to a wave of discontent over increasing
costs at public universities, including protests against the
proposed 5 percent annual tuition hikes in the UC and
campus-based “student success fees” in the CSU.